Wednesday, December 13, 2017

A Beautiful Kind of Perspective

My Saturdays are filled mostly with studying these days. That’s how it was this past Saturday, too. My Criminal Law professor assigned a practice midterm (sounds fun, I know), so I spent about 6 hours, starting in the morning, doing some last-minute studying. Then, I spent 3 hours taking the test. I capped it all off by starting — but, alas, not even finishing — my reading for the same class, to prepare for Monday. By the time I walked out of the law library — the best place in town to while away an entire Saturday, of course — I was more than a little dazed. The sun had been down for several hours.

I put my books in my locker and caught a Lyft to Hollywood Forever Cemetery for their annual Dia de los Muertos Festival.

I got to the festival — which celebrated its 18th year this year — well after it started. The roads through the cemetery were lined with vendors, as well as with altars, which families had set up for their loved ones. I picked my way through the face painted crowd and found my friends waiting for Colombian rock band Aterciopelados, the final band of the night, to start playing.

After 12 hours of studying, it was a best kind of release. We sipped beers and felt the air, the first cool night of the year. Around us, a celebration of life and of the lives of family members who’ve passed on to the other side. It was a beautiful kind of perspective – a reminder that even when you’re buried in books, it’s important to get out and live a little.